Stacy Ross (Mrs. Erlynne) and Emily Kitchens (Lady Windermere) in Cal Shakes’ production of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, directed by Christopher Liam Moore; photo by Kevin Berne.
Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Play About a Good Woman: Comedy/Melodrama by Oscar Wilde. Directed by Christopher Liam Moore. California Shakespeare Theater (CalShakes), Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd.), Orinda, CA 94563.510.548.9666 or www.calshakes.org. August 14 – September 8, 2013
LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN opens unevenly at CalShakes
This seems to be the year for actor/director Christopher Liam Moore to add luster to his reputation as a director. This year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he is an associate artistic director he helmed a brilliant, touching production of Midsummer Night’s Dream and received accolades for his compelling staging of A Street Car Named Desire. Therefore expectations were high on entering the Bruns’ Amphitheatre where a gorgeous set (Annie Smart) awaited the entrance of the actors to give life to Oscar Wilde’s delicious/cutting/devilish/ socially incorrect lines.
The play is described as a comedy/melodrama and previously reviewed productions were a well balanced mixture of comedy and drama. In director Moore’s staging there is greater emphasis on the comedy with a touch of farce introduced by having the inimitable Danny Scheie appear in drag in a pivotal role of the Duchess and two other Grand Dames. His is a dominating performance that preempts the stage.
He is not the only performer with that innate ability to wrest accolades from the audience. Emily Kitchens as the Lady with the fateful fan turns in a splendid acting job as the 21 year old wife of Lord Windermere (Aldo Billingslea) whom she suspects of having an extramarital affair with the mysterious seductive Mrs. Erlynne (Stacy Ross). The sub-title of “A Play About a Good Woman” refers with different connotations of “good” to Lady Windermere and Mrs. Erlynne. But that is getting ahead of the story.
Written in 1862 early in Oscar Wilde’s career, rewrites were shared his producer Sir George Alexander. In this Victorian Era, social class distinction defined the different mores for woman and men and Wilde had the stunning ability to skewer both sexes with many of his infamous lines that are rampant in this play. (http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1897835-lady-windermere-s-fan.)
When Lady Windermere suspects her husband of infidelity she hastily decides to accept Lord Darlington’s (Nick Gabriel) proposal to take her away from it all. Doing so would be catastrophic and when Mrs. Erlynne discovers the potential disaster she takes matters into her own hands. This leads to a confrontation between the two women. Kitchens and Ross play their roles with palpable and memorable sincerity. The reasons behind Erlynne’s intervention gradually become known and the Windermeres reunite.
The initial foppish entrance by Nick Gabriel as Darlington was unimpressive and confusing but in his later scenes he rises to the level of a true lover with a touch of the rue. James Carpenter’s Lord Augustus smitten by the charms of Mrs. Erlynne is a gem of a performance. L. Peter Callender makes the most of his underwritten part of Mr. Dumby using perfect diction to enunciate Wilde’s wild lines. It is Dan Clegg, who recently gave an award winning performance as Romeo, who takes Wilde’s lines to the heights they deserve when he appropriately dominates the men in the penultimate scene. Aldo Billingslea who has given SF Bay Area Critic Award performances as Othello, the Elephant Man and others seems uncomfortable as Lord Windermere.
With the exceptions of Lord Darlington’s doubtful costume in the early scene, Meg Neville’s costume designs are stunning. A nice touch is the black and white costume she designed for Mrs. Erlynne underscoring the dichotomy of the character.
Running time 2 hours and 10 minutes including the intermission.
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
